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News organizations are grappling with the decline in the quality of journalism on social media.
This issue was highlighted by many speakers at the 2024 Global Journalism Forum, including panelists who discussed “The Social Media Tango – The Changing Relationship Between News Organizations and Social Media Companies.”
Katie Brehm, head of innovation at France Télévisions, said that when social media companies were first created, they presented news organizations with a “super-distribution strategy.” “They really needed us. They needed our quality content,” she said. Over time, as consumers became content producers, “Facebook no longer needed us, they changed their algorithm and no longer pushed news. Instead, fake news spread six times faster than real news.”
Emilio San Pedro, senior editor at Eurovision, said news organisations and social media companies now have very different goals than they did 10 years ago. “On one hand, journalism (especially public service media) needs something very specific and wants to get that information to an audience or attract new audiences. On the other hand, these tech companies have grown into large businesses with huge budgets and very different cultures.
“Their culture is very much an American culture first. That is, in America, the dollar, the money is what matters. So you’re talking about a culture that is very one-directional, and we, especially coming from public media, are saying you know we have all these wonderful values and we want you to work with us.”
Dr. Pirongrong Ramasoota, professor emeritus and commissioner at Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said datafication is driving the attention economy and helping platforms predict and drive audience preferences. She said that in some ways, news organizations are fighting a losing battle because of the platform economy.
“Algorithms are about attention, about engagement… We pursue completely different ideals. When it comes to journalism, you have to report the truth, you have to encourage citizens to participate in democratic activities, but algorithms care about engagement… the number of clicks.”
Kla Tangsuwan, CEO and co-founder of Wisesight, noted that the social media tango requires news organizations to dance around the clock.
Several speakers encouraged delegates to negotiate with social media companies to increase visibility and rebuild trust in the digital ecosystem. Emilio said: “We need to be involved, we need to be in this space… It’s not like the tech companies are totally unreceptive.”
Carty said France Télévisions is now trying to make its platform as engaging as social media. “We have different strategies…particularly in terms of gamification, engagement and storytelling.” She said journalists must understand how social media works and how to increase engagement. She said France Télévisions has recruited social media influencers in the newsroom to help make content more engaging.
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